OT: Water, Water, Everywhere...

[Craig Vecchione]

So I woke up just before 4AM for a pee. Normal for an almost-52-year-old guy. Do the deed, back to bed. As I started drifting back to sleep, I heard the coffee maker start on its timer...Kim will be up soon, and always has a mug first thing. I then hear the sump pump run a cycle in the basement. Odd, it hasn't been raining. Then I hear the very faint sound of the well pump cycle on and off. Hmm. Okay, wait, that's normal, I just flushed the toilet. Then I hear it run again. NOT normal.

I descend the basement steps to what I fear. Water at the landing, half an inch deep. The entire basement has a thin layer of water puddling. Into the workshop, and there's the water heater, hemorraging through the drain valve hole.

We're lucky. None of my music gear is damaged, even my instruments (my Ric 4003!!!!) in their cases on the floor. Some household items in cardboard boxes that I'd moved recently aren't so lucky, but there's nothing damaged that is of great importance.

In the last hour and 45min I've drained and removed the water heater to the backyard (it's a walkout basement). Secured the failed shutoff valve above the heater. The stem was corroded and broke off in my hand when I tried to shut it...it was only 3 years old. I suspect galvanic corrosion. Looked up what's in stock at the local Lowe's, which should be open at 6AM when I post this.

Oh well.

[nchangin]

Oh man finished basement? Water damage insurance I hope?

[dbMontana]

Oh the joys of homeownership! I had a similar incident ten years ago when the power company showed up at 7:30am to test for the source of our flickering lights. A huge flash when he pulled the meter from its base and the socket disintegrated. One of those "OK, looks like a change of plans for the morning." I had installed a new 200 amp service by nightfall. The power company and city inspectors were very accommodating of my DIY that day. All well since. Good luck Craig. Glad nothing got too damaged.

[Bugzie]

Well on the positive side you found your source and will easily correct for it. A few years back we had a nasty spring melt. I ended up with about 6 inches in the entire basement. After about 9 hours of running a couple of sump pumps it was down to a small film. When i located the source, it seems that it had pushed all of whatever they used between the floor and footer out of the small space it filled. I'm guessing it was oakum. Any way after further inspection I found that the footer drains had filled with silt and collapsed in a couple of places. After about $5k I had it corrected. Remember that clorox or any other bleach is your friend. Luckily all I lost was a crate of LP's that was sitting on the floor. Actually I just lost the covers, the albums were fine.I spent about 2 weeks feeding hydralic cement into that little crack.

[Craig Vecchione]

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nchangin wrote:

Oh man

finished basement? Water damage insurance I hope?

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It's "semi" finished...has walls and everything that goes in 'em. Floor and ceiling haven't been done yet. The plan all along has been to floor with something waterproof, no carpeting, etc.

Kim called her insurance agent and so far it's not worth filing a claim. $1,000 deductible, and it doesn't appear we've got nearly that much damage. The walls stayed dry for the most part, and there's excellent ventilation. The basement is mostly dry already, just need to move out the cardboard boxes that got wet.

I just finished the water heater replacement. Took much longer due to a few minor problems. The new one is 50gal replacing a 40gal, and has more insulation. It's fatter and much heavier at 143 pounds. The closet it goes in is a bit small, and it took time to engineer an installation solution that didn't include me attempting to dead-lift the thing. Next problem was that I replaced the icemaker line's shutoff whilst the system was drained. It had a saddle clamp with a needle shutoff. They're notoriously unreliable, so in went a tee, a 1/2" valve, and an adapter to the 1/4" line. Of course, the very last fitting to be tightened wouldn't stop dripping, so off to the store. As always, no plumbing project is ever completed with just one trip to the store. The replacement compression fitting works.

$650. Cha-ching.

[Don Davis]

Sorry to hear about your water damage. My job used to involve a lot of plumbing (commercial) I hardly remember only making one trip to the parts house. I always forgot something or broke something else in the process.

You might look into water alarms, they're pretty cheap these days but they'll go off with as little 1/32 of water on the floor. Only problem is you have to be home to hear it.

[dbMontana]

 

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Don Davis wrote:

 

 

--snip-- My job used to involve a lot of plumbing (commercial) I hardly remember only making one trip to the parts house. I always forgot something or broke something else in the process. --snip--

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I was going to make the same comment earlier -- with plumbing it seems I always have to make multiple trips back to the store.  Personally I'd consider myself lucky to make one return .

 

 

 

[trevcda]

 

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Don Davis wrote:

 

 

You might look into water alarms, they're pretty cheap these days but they'll go off with as little 1/32 of water on the floor. Only problem is you have to be home to hear it.

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If you have a security system (if you have even a percentage of the gear around the house as I do, you should) you should be able to add a water sensing device that will report to the monitoring company and alert you as soon as it triggers.  Often times this can be done with a wireless device, depending on the security panel being used.  Put a sensor anyplace where it's likely to occur; water heater, washer, refridgerator with an ice maker, etc.  There's also another system called Water Cop that also uses sensors, but will shut off the main feed to your house when it's triggered.

[agedhorse]

I designed a water shutoff system for a clients (very expensive) house. A commercial liquid detection alarm with NC contacts and a commercial 1" water solenoid valve with power supply and interface logic + relay.